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Saturday, June 13, 2009

Bonnie Erbe proposes rounding us all up. We're "hateful," you know.

Meet Bonnie Erbe.

First, my thanks to typeay for bringing my attention to the following op-ed by Bonnie Erbe. More on my reaction on the other side.

MikeIII

Round Up Hate-Promoters Now, Before Any More Holocaust Museum Attacks

By Bonnie ErbeJun 11, 2009

Three incidents and counting.

If yesterday's Holocaust Museum slaying of security guard and national hero Stephen Tyrone Johns is not a clarion call for banning hate speech, I don't know what is.

Playwright Janet Langhart Cohen appeared on CNN yesterday right after the shooting, as she wrote a play that was supposed to have been debuted at the Holocaust Museum last night. Her play is about Emmett Till, whose lynching helped launch the Civil Rights Movement, and Ann Frank, whose diary told the story of Holocaust victims in hiding in the Netherlands during World War II.

She said something must be done about ridding the Internet and the public dialogue of hate speech. I agree. Not only have we had three hate crime murders within the last two weeks (Mr. Johns, as noted above, Dr. George Tiller a week ago last Sunday, and Pvt. William Andrew Long by an American-born Muslim convert outside a recruiting station just before that.)

Now we have this quote from the so-called Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who used to be President Obama's pastor. Hate comes from among all peoples and all religions. He said this about his lack of communication with Barack Obama since he's been elected president, according to the AP:

"Them Jews ain't going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a lame duck, or in eight years when he's out of office," Wright told the Daily Press of Newport News following a Tuesday night sermon at the 95th annual Hampton University Ministers' Conference.

It's not enough to prosecute these murders as murders. They are hate-motivated crimes and each of these men had been under some sort of police surveillance prior to their actions. Isn't it time we started rounding up promoters of hate before they kill?

Bonnie Erbe is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and hosts PBS's weekly news analysis program, To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbe. She also writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column for Scripps Howard News Service.

Now here is more than you ever wanted to know about Bonnie Erbe (pronounced Ur-bay). Suffice it to say she is no middle-weight Daily Kos idiot. She has, among other things, her own PBS show.

Also, she's a big animal lover but on the other hand, as she says here, for her "abortion is not a tragedy."

You recently wrote in a piece entitled, "Round Up Hate-Promoters Now, Before Any More Holocaust Museum Attacks.":

"(Playwright Janet Langhart Cohen) said something must be done about ridding the Internet and the public dialogue of hate speech. I agree. . . It's not enough to prosecute these murders as murders. They are hate-motivated crimes and each of these men had been under some sort of police surveillance prior to their actions. Isn't it time we started rounding up promoters of hate before they kill?"

I'm confused. Your bio at pbs.org calls you a "nonpartisan, award-winning American journalist" and indicates that you "graduated from Barnard College in 1974, Columbia University with an M.S. in Journalism in 1975 and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1987," and that you were on "the law revue at Georgetown and graduated cum laude."

So as a both a journalist and a lawyer, can you explain to me how your proposed roundup would be targeted consistent with the First Amendment? And what would your big "round up" look like? The Palmer Raids? The Alien and Sedition Acts? Or perhaps a more individually targeted Department of Pre-crime as defined by Janet Napolitano and executed by the minions of Eric Holder, the same people who brought us Waco?

Or are you looking for something more Orwellian like the Thought Police?

Now I understand that these questions are going to challenge your obvious leftish cognitive dissonance. Anyone who can in one breath proclaim that "abortion is not a tragedy" and simultaneously identify yourself as " a strong supporter of compassion for animals" without irony defines moral cognitive dissonance. Cherishing stray cats more than human life is not unheard of, of course. Adolf Hitler loved dogs too.

But I am curious, Ms. Erbe. How do you craft a law to accomplish your purpose without yourself being arrested when the regime changes? Do you think the "Lightworker" will be in power forever?

Ms. Erbe, I have fought neo-Nazis at street level all of my life. I despise them as the immoral scum between the cracks of the human sidewalk of civilization that they are. But I have sense enough to know that even they have the right to free speech. Do you remember nothing from Constitutional Law 101? How about History 202?

You wish to sweep away those that you find "hateful." Have you ever considered that there are many who find your ideas "hateful?"

Most of the Founders understood that you should never pass a law that you wouldn't be willing to see enforced upon you by your own worst enemy. (John Adams didn't, but then he and his party were swept from power by the reaction to the Alien and Sedition Acts.) If you really believe what you wrote, and worse, get what you ask for, the resulting armed resistance to such a tyrannical proposal would sweep away the safe, mythical cocoon within which you seem to live.

And if you think that tyranny and civil war cannot come to this country, as divided ideologically and morally as we presently are, you are whistling past the graveyard of history.

But as none of this is going to make an impression upon you, at least tell us -- please -- exactly what form of tyrannical oppression are you proposing?

Reading stuff like that sends a chill up my spine.... We have seen our enemy, and our enemy is US! I truly believe that blogs like this, and thousands of others, will soon be shut down, and their owners dragged off for "re-education". All I can say to that is "Not on MY watch!"

The freedom of the internet is an incredible thorn in the side of the currently entrenched socialist left. As a growing share of the awakening American public rejects the overtly biased, anti-Constitutionally focused shill media, both their market share, and previous monopoly of dispensing their version of "truth" continue to dwindle. Expect to see increasingly aggressive focused attacks on ANY web site that dares to question the officially sanctioned current spin.

Speaking of hate speech, here are some choice examples from Bonnie Erbe:

April, 2000: "There is a counter-demonstration in the works on Mother's Day. A group called the Second Amendment Sisters will be taking on the Million Moms as they (the Sisters) march AGAINST gun control. It will be fun to see what big-haired, heat-packin', Republican pro-gun Mamas look like. If I had a Harley and a six pack, I might go down to the Mall that day just to have a look-see for myself."

Shortly afterward, when Linda Chavez, her PBS co-host, had the courage to buck her co-hosts and admit owning a gun because in case of murder, rape, or burglary it would take police a half hour to reach her rural location, Erbe shot back, "if you look at the statistics, I would bet that you have a greater chance of being struck by lightning, Linda, than living where you are at your age (52) and being raped." (The statistics show otherwise, of course.)

When Chavez quit the show over this insult, Erbe called her an "overgrown Catholic school girl," and suggested,"you get into therapy. Otherwise you are going to continue to be miserable and in denial the rest of your life."

Is this hate speech? I don't know, but I can point to at least one person who "feels threatened" by it, so I say we should err on the side of public safety!

"She said something must be done about ridding the Internet and the public dialogue of hate speech. I agree. Not only have we had three hate crime murders within the last two weeks (Mr. Johns, as noted above, Dr. George Tiller a week ago last Sunday, and Pvt. William Andrew Long by an American-born Muslim convert outside a recruiting station just before that.)"

---

I, truth be told, was shocked to read that myself, and even more shocked to see her criticize the Rev. Wright as well.

Usually these folks are eerily silent when it comes to hate crimes/speech by minority groups.

Not that her lumping of leftwing nitwits with rightwing nitwits makes her insane idea any more palatable.

If we were the hateful bloodthirsty crew that Erbe claims we are how does she explain the fact of her continued existence?Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that logic is never a major factor when the libtards spew forth with their rants.

Your letter is outstanding but I will be surprised if the over-educated idiot even reads it much less responds.

These people have no intention of considering or even acknowledging any disagreement, reasonable or otherwise.

Any attempt to convince a person whose mind is closed will only result in irritating that person and in wasting your time.

Your e-mail is a work of art but is wasted on the intended recipient. It would be better received as an open letter to the American people who need to know how self described intellectuals with bloated egos think of the general public. This woman believes that, because she is seen on television on a fairly regular basis, she is qualified to speak and be revered as an expert on any subject she may decide to address.

"Orwell's Thought Police are coming closer and closer to becoming a reality."

Yes, and believe me, when they do, we'll know about it.

Solzhenitsyn wrote about this very thing, I suggest we all take his experiences and teachings to heart. So please, also take Mr. Vanderboegh's teachings to heart, get ready, NOW, while we still have time.

I don't know if this is the best place to post this comment:The Wall Street Journal reports that the FBI seeks to target lone extremists under "Operation Vigilant Eagle," launched late last year in response to what the memo identified as "an increase in recruitment, threatening communications, and weapons procurement by white supremacy extremist and militia/sovereign citizen extremist groups."http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124501849215613523.html

These college elistists think they know better than everybody just because they sat around for 4 or 6 years in a college listening to other's ideas. While she was attending college in her youth, I was in the military during my youth (20 years) defending her right to free speech. I have the right to dislike the behavior of certain groups and have the right to express my displeasure. Just look at the picture of Bonnie Erbe, she is a vision of smugness.

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Advice on child rearing from my son.

Everyone should grow up with simulated equipment from a heavy weapons platoon. It gives you a more well rounded education and an appreciation for the finer things in life. -- Sergeant Matthew Vanderboegh, United States Army.

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . .

Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.

In the future . . .

When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"

"Smash the bloody mirror."

If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh

From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe.

"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."

"Only cowards dare cringe."

The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.

"We fight an enemy that never sleeps."

"As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.